Reminiscence of the Future
by Silver-eyed Hyuuga
Summary: Such a griefstricken face. Why do you weep such silent tears? Why do you sit in sad, heartrending silence as desperation eats at the very corners of your soul? Let me care for you, sooth you in any way I can…though I am but a common whore. NejiNaru


Ohayo gozaimasu, minna-san. I have a most peculiar story to tell concerning how I came up with this one-shot NejiNaru. (clears throat) a-HEM! Okay. Okay.

Once upon a very long time ago, in fact all of yesterday perhaps, I was in the shower singing "Phantom of the Opera" songs entirely off-key as I usually do. I got halfway through washing my legs and was almost to the end of "The Point of No Return" when I slipped on the soap and crashed in an unsightly heap on the bottom of the tub. The soap, which got thrown up as I fell on my ass, landed hard on my head…and right then and there, I got the most amazing idea for a NejiNaru one-shot. So here it is. The result of one huge and extremely painful fall in the shower and a lump the size of a tennis ball on my head as well as half a dozen bruises to boot. Hope you enjoy.

Oh, and…this one's for you, all my faithful (coughyeahrightcough) reviewers! Especially you, Soozy-woozy! My surprise as an extremely early birthday present (whenever your birthday is 3)!

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Reminiscence of the Future

_Such sad water droplets, falling almost mournfully to the ground. _

Random puddles sprinkled sporadically throughout the grunge-covered rain-slicked alleyways were disrupted as small, formerly lithe, supple feet broke through their surface tension.

_Such utterly perfect spheres, shaped into existence by lurid, luminescent heavens._

Torrents seemed to pour from the skies, slicking rust-covered walls with pure, transcendent liquid as a grief-stricken figure slipped through the mold-encrusted alleys.

_How equally rounded in their shapes, yet how they coalesce, transmute, and combine._

Hyuuga Neji stretched almost languidly as he arched the kinks out of his long, lanky back. Limber, elegantly graceful arms reached upwards, and Neji ran pale, alabaster fingers with a maddening air of leisure through the exotic, midnight waterfall that served as his hair. Deftly slipping the teal-tinted white silk blouse over his broad, sloping shoulders, the Hyuuga slid into his pants, collected his money, bid his customer a good night, and fluidly pocketed the sum of money, a slow, idly feral smirk chiseled into his flawless features. Prostitution tended to pay well if one had the looks and body; consequently, ever since he'd entered the brothel over a month ago, the best whore in business had mysteriously quit due to the sudden downsurge in her customers the moment word leaked out that a tantalizing new-blood had entered into the arts of seduction.

He could feel the smile on his face promptly slide off and shatter at his feet the very moment his most recent customer departed sans a couple thousand yen.

Neji's smirk promptly evolved into a scowl which deepened as he mercilessly crushed the money between unusually long fingers. Damn them. Damn the accursed Branch family and all their familial superiority to the darkest depths of Hell. Because of them, he was reduced to hiring out his virtue to the lowest of the low. Because of them, he'd lost every single way of financially supporting himself due to the large, ugly, and extremely mocking splotch on his reputation of being a Branch family member. And because of them, he'd been forced into this brothel, this stinking place filled with the malodorous stench of rotting opium, and had been forced to rut with the lewd just to support himself in terms of food and shelter.

How he cursed those bastards to hell, how he wished he could rip open every single vessel in their proud, sneering bodies and watch in crazed, frenzied pleasure as the crimson libation soaked him with red.

His scowl deepened as he exited his room. The manager at the front desk leaned over, displaying her impressive charms, and gave him a wink as he exited, then jerked her hand as a signal for him to begin plying his trade on more poor, unsuspecting souls. Neji exhibited a fine impression of a smile most saccharine, then turned and swept an utterly disgusted gaze over the limp sacks of flesh before him. Most of them were stoned or drunk, though a few were at least conscious enough to belch out a slurred comment or two on the fine quality of his lower dorsal extremity.

Just then the door opened, and in staggered a vision that made the Hyuuga wrench his head from side to side in a most applaudable effort to make sure his eyes were properly functioning.

A small, blonde boy with matted, mangy, dirt-streaked rain-slicked hair, bewhiskered cheeks, and the purest liquid-blue eyes had just stumbled blindly into the brothel, with an almost disconsolate air clouding his aura. The boy looked up, and Hyuuga Neji was hit with such an intense cocktail of feelings, he nearly choked on his tongue and it took him a while to remember how to breathe. Pasted on this figure's faultless features was an expression of such staggering, desolate grief, such blatant, knife-edged pain, such….such _desperate passion_ that the look in his gem-cut eyes…the look in his eyes seemed to rip through the Hyuuga, slicing past sinew, viscera, tendon and ligament, straight into his beating heart itself. The look in the blonde's eyes flayed him alive, shredded his soul, sliced him garishly into a million slices of flesh and spirit. Neji almost perished right then and there before the world.

It was at this very moment that the aforementioned manager decided to slice through the silence with her grating, metallic, nasal-edged voice.

"Aaaaah, why I've never seen _you_ here before, honey. Make yourself at home, yes?" she screeched in a tone not unlike the sound of nails being shoved into a pencil sharpener.

The blonde sent her a weak smile that was more out of formality than anything else and deposited his small, fragile frame onto the nearest couch. The couch shrieked and bucked, and the blonde was promptly thrown onto the floor and given a sharp, thrusting kick by a spiked stiletto shoe. The buxom brunette jabbed him once more for good measure, then resettled herself once again onto the gauzy, meretricious recliner.

Neji took this as his cue to rescue the blonde. Immediately he stooped, scooped up the surprisingly light body by the waist and sent a sizzling glare that promised fatal things to come at said offending brunette, who whimpered and curled up into a small, insignificant ball. The blonde waif in his arms tilted up his head and graced the Hyuuga with more a twisting of his mouth than an actual smile, and yet it sent a smooth stream of liquid sun curling into the very pits of his insides, around his heart and into the general vicinity of his chest cavity. Neji felt as if he'd just swallowed a hearty dose of warm, welcoming magma.

He exhaled gently as he cradled the fox-like blonde to his chest, shot a last steel-spiked glower at the shell-shocked manager, and dissolved back upstairs to his room with all the fluidity of liquid mercury.

Gentle, he was so gentle; why was it, _why was it_ that now, of all the times in his life, the sleeping mythical creature of gentility had awoken inside his soul and had decided to exercise its talents? Why was it that Neji felt the frigid layers of ice that protected his heart and the years of hard-earned self-control he'd gone through hell and back to achieve…why was it that they were all at once obliterated into not even half a shred of memory at the mere sight of this boy? There was nothing special about him really…Neji had seen countless blonde-haired doe-eyed specimens before, so why was it that it only took one small, insignificant boy to tear his soul off its foundations with all the effect of a wrecking ball? Delicate, midnight-hued eyebrows came together in a thoughtful frown as the Hyuuga mused over the slumbering blonde before him.

Opalescent eyes roved over the thin, slender body before him. The boy had a sleek, supple body…or at least, he would have had if not for the brashly obvious line of ribs that showed through his tattered, threadbare shirt. Poor child…Neji's eyes narrowed in a most rare display of sympathy. The blonde waif had been tortured, that he had. Still…he had a good quantity of muscle, no questions concerning that. The boy indeed had muscle, which only served to emphasize the slenderness of his lustrous, limber body and at the same time preventing a scrawny, sickly look he would have sported had he lacked it. The fingers were small, and delicately callused by hints of harsh training; the neck was unusually long and pleasingly pale, and the legs and torso were smoothly, marvelously chiseled, again hinting at the boy's physical training.

Opalescent eyes halted on the three slash marks that adorned both cheeks of the blonde before him. They were peculiar markings…he'd seen tattoos and scars aplenty during his lifetime, but never before had he seen such markings, three even slashes carved into both cheeks. They oddly complimented the blonde's pale face, enhancing the sharpness and angle of his cheekbones as well as accentuating the prominent line of his jaw. He made a mental note to hint at curiosity towards those slashes should he ever converse with the boy.

A faint look of reminiscence briefly passed over the Hyuuga's countenance. This boy…this boy was one who had seen a lot of life. Somehow, though in what way the Hyuuga knew not, somehow this boy had remained purely innocent throughout whatever horrifying ordeal he'd been put under. His face when slumbering was contorted into a sad look, a permanently forlorn, funereal look…as if his face were so accustomed to sadness, his brain immediately assumed that countenance out of sheer reflex. Snow-white eyes narrowed as a flash of hot, liquid rage surged suddenly through Neji's veins. Whoever did this to the blonde would pay, and pay dearly.

A small sound escaped from the blonde, and delicate brows came together in a trace of a frown. The boy slowly cracked open one dulled gray-blue eye, performed a hazy survey of his surroundings, and slowly closed said eye, emitting another faint noise that sounded like a cross between a purr and a moan. Neji swallowed, suddenly uncomfortable. A sudden layer of grit had somehow mysteriously formed in his mouth; his heart gave a spasmodic palpitation and took off to the races, leaving him somewhat short of breath. The blonde gave another final sound then sat up, swiping a rather grungy paw across his sleep-encrusted eyes. The room slowly came into focus as he blinked a couple times for good measure.

"Where…are we?" The question was uttered in a hoarse, rasping voice that suggested at abuse and misuse. The blonde hastily cleared his throat.

"We are in my room." Neji stated calmly, an unreadable expression in his clear pale eyes. The blonde nodded, savoring the information, his eyes misted over with the adjusting of presence.

He cocked his head to the side, sapphire-chips of eyes flicking slowly over Neji's regal form. Something clicked in his mind and memory flooded back, swirling swiftly into the crevices of his shredded mind. A brothel…somehow…he had made his way into a brothel? Yes…yes, he remembered now….the manager had been rather too lascivicious in her manner…but…if this was a brothel…then…his eyes swept once more over Neji's patient form, carefully noting the sleek, long hair and the sheer, bluish-white shirt, his mind quickly coming to a concise conclusion with the speed of tinder catching fire.

If this was a brothel, then his rescuer was a whore.

The blonde lowered his head a slight notch, suddenly confused. If his rescuer was a whore….but no, that didn't make sense. If his rescuer was a whore, he'd be trying to seduce the living breath out of him by now. And certainly he'd never seen a whore with such a serene, powerfully elegant air of graceful regality before. But given the circumstances…his rescuer had a room of his own here in this brothel. Logic and intuition defied one another as he executed a silent analysis of the figure before him.

"What is your name?" The honey-smooth, silken baritone of his rescuer seemed to pool into the blonde's abdominal chest cavity, coagulating into a hot, steamy puddle of warmth. He mumbled something unintelligible; Neji strained his ears to catch the word.

"Pardon?" His rescuer's tone was soft and mildly inquisitive, sending new strength through the blonde's body.

"Uzumaki Naruto." The words were spoken in a soft, gentle tenor that played a graceful, rolling arpeggio on Neji's heartstrings.

"What's yours?" So soft, he could barely hear it. Nevertheless, Neji responded in kind.

"I am Hyuuga Neji." He said quietly. To his surprise, Naruto shied away.

"H-Hyuuga-san…" He started. Neji smiled sadly and gently tilted up the blonde's chin, shaking his head.

"Don't address me as –san….I am of the Branch family and not worth the title." He said, a faint trace of bitterness underlying the current of his voice. Suddenly Naruto remembered something of crucial importance. He looked up urgently, eyes searing into Neji's soul.

"Are we in a brothel?" He asked.

Neji hesitated, quickly running through the list of possibilities. He could grace the blonde with the blatant truth at risk of Naruto being disgusted at his profession. He could put Naruto under the pretense that this wasn't a brothel, just an average nightclub…or he could lie through his teeth and pretend he hadn't a clue where they were either.

"Well…yes. This is indeed a brothel." Guilt laced his voice as he uttered the detestable words.

Contrary to his assumptions, Naruto just nodded, brilliant cerulean eyes clouded over with thought. Slight fingers twitched, then disappeared briefly inside one half-ragged pocket, only to emerge with a few rusted-over yen. The blonde thrust the money in the general direction of the Hyuuga's startled form, deliberately avoiding the searching gaze that pasted itself upon him via two pearl-hued eyes.

"Please…I don't want to keep you from your profession. This is all I have, and I'd appreciate it if you would spare me some time before…before…" He trailed off, looking awkwardly at his fingers, appearing to find a sudden interest in a stray thread that had unraveled from the coverlet of the bed.

"Before I ply the true purpose of my trade upon you?" Neji said bluntly. The blonde winced, then inclined his head in the most miniscule of motions.

"I don't think it will do any harm to my business…any potential customers are currently passed out downstairs." The Hyuuga stated stoically. Naruto emitted a faint sound suspiciously familiar to a laugh. Neji nearly swallowed his tongue at the heavenly sound.

"Do you mind if I ask you a few questions first?" He said softly. Naruto balked, then shook his head.

"I don't mind."

Instead of responding, Neji leaned his head back against the wall, a deep sigh resonating from the very depths of his soul. Silence descended upon the room, disrupted only by the slow, steady breathing of the two occupants. Neji broke it gently by turning to the blonde.

"You will not mind if I ask you why, of all places, did you end up in this one?" Naruto twisted his mouth in a slightly amused yet forlorn smirk.

"I don't mind." He swallowed, then started again.

"You know of the Satsu apartment complex, yes?" He asked. Neji nodded.

"I used to reside in that complex until today…my landlord chased me out because I couldn't pay the high price he demanded….so I just…wandered around…and….I found this place…and since I was tired…I just…" He shrugged slender shoulders, at a loss for words.

"But this doesn't explain why you're bruised as you are." Neji said sympathetically. At this, the minute spark of light flickering in Naruto's brilliantly iridescent eyes flickered and died.

"No…no it doesn't."

Neji waited silently, wisely knowing it was best not to push the subject. After a while, Naruto mustered up the courage to speak once more.

"I…I had encountered…a couple of men…I think they were drunk. They pushed me into an alleyway…then…all I remember was the pain…and what they said…they called me a monster…a bastard…demon child…" He broke off with a hitching breath that seemed to rattle the coldness in his soul.

"And…and I don't know what I did. I just knew…the next minute….I felt so…so horribly _powerful_…as if my body had a mind of its own….like as if I was overflowing with energy…and…and the _rage_ and _anger_…" He shuddered, hugging his shoulders as if to protect himself from his own story.

"I think…I think I killed them. Because…because….when I could see properly again…my hands…my hands were soaked in blood and flesh…and…they were lying on the ground with blood all around them…and then….it started to rain…"

Neji could feel his heart shattering into a million tiny shards at the expression of sheer desolation encased within the blonde's eyes.

"And then…I washed off my hands with…with the sewer water…from the rain…and I came…I came here, I guess." He arched his shoulders and curled into himself, tightly hugging his knees, rocking back and forth slightly on the bed, desperation embodied.

"I've always experienced this….I think…when I was small…they called me…a…a bastard, a demon-child…I was beaten…so I was used to it…but then….I don't think I've ever…ever experienced it…to this…to this extent…" The words were muffled against his arms as he continued to sway in a bleak rhythm of black misery.

Never before had Neji seen such a coagulation of raw, unmitigated emotion. Resignation, sadness, depression, desolation, all wrapped up in a dressing of undaunted hopelessness…Naruto…he felt his heart contract painfully as the blonde continued to sway gently on the bed, encased in a solid wall of eerie silence. Not a tear fell from his face…but no, to cry would be to completely ruin the effect. It was the sheer stony silence that emitted in waves from the blonde that frightened the Hyuuga so. As if…as if Naruto had gone past the brink of suicide. As if his very soul were sucked out of his body, drained dry by the experiences he'd encountered.

He didn't know what prompted him. He didn't know what mad god had decided to possess him right then and there…all he knew was that the next thing his arms were around the boy and his shirt was being thoroughly soaked by silent, cold tears. Naruto wept noiselessly against his chest, arms wrapped tightly around his waist as he buried his face into the soft fabric of Neji's blouse. The Hyuuga shifted on the bed and tightened his hold on the blonde as he soothed him tenderly, whispering reassuring nothings into his ear.

Naruto's sobs gradually subsided as he was completely enveloped in Neji's warm embrace. The musky scent of the Hyuuga swirled around him and infiltrated his nostrils; surprisingly, Neji's scent was not of opium, sweat, liquor, or of any smells common to any type of nightclub; instead, it was surprisingly pleasing, a carefully weighted concoction of sandalwood, persimmons, pine, and vanilla. He vaguely registered that Neji had one hand cupped behind his head as he rocked him gently; silken, ebony locks feel in rivulets in front of his view as Neji's hair spilled like water over his shoulders. Eventually his shaking stopped as Neji's powerfully calming aura took effect, though his grasp on the Hyuuga grew no less demanding. Many moments passed as the two stayed intertwined in mutual embrace upon the bed, and time seemed to stop as each was caught up in their own separate whirlwind of frantic emotion.

After a long period of understanding silence, Naruto stirred gently against Neji's chest and lifted his head to gaze inquisitively into the other's luminescent eyes. The Hyuuga sat passively as Naruto licked his lips, searching for words.

"Uhm…Neji…" The Hyuuga lightly brushed a stray lock of golden-bronze hair back into place.

"Yes?" He answered. Naruto looked awkwardly away.

"Could…could I ask you something?" He began. Neji delicately lifted a single exquisitely elegant eyebrow.

"You may." He consented. Naruto took a deep breath, then began in a soft, barely audible voice.

"Well…if you work in a brothel…and you're not the bartender…then…then…" He trailed off, positively toasting Neji's wispy shirt with the heat of his blush.

"I'm a whore?" Neji stated candidly. His shirt promptly caught on fire and burned to a crisp, or at least it would have if blushes radiated heat. Naruto's face would make even his manager's blood-red lipstick green with jealousy.

"Well…I didn't mean it in THAT way—"

"But you did." Neji smiled. "It's perfectly fine, really…but it's true. I do indeed sell my virtue both nightly and sometimes daily. I've been working at this place for a month now." he said, expression perfectly bland. Naruto's gaze immediately snapped away, and he effusively mumbled what sounded like a very garbled apology. Neji smiled wanly.

"But it is I who should apologize. You should have sought comfort with someone of much higher repute than I. I, who willingly sell my sex to both men and women, am not worthy of your company. You will have soiled yourself by remaining in my presence." he said softly. Naruto violently shook his head in response, the words he spoke a cry of divergence.

"But that is what I don't understand! I would have never assumed you a prostitute at first meeting. How could you be? You're too kind, too understanding, too warm—the average whore would have seduced me by now, man or woman—but you've offered me hope, kindness…you've given me reason to live. Someone like you could never be suited to such a corrupted profession." He said assertively. The Hyuuga turned away, his voice laced with bitterness.

"You bestow upon me too much esteem." He muttered.

Abruptly he was hauled up a good three inches off the bed, Naruto's fists entwined in the lapels of his shirt. The blonde looked murderous.

"Don't you dare degrade yourself like that! Profession or not, you still possess great virtue and _well you know it_!" He spat harshly. Neji's expression was obscured by midnight strands falling over his eyes.

"Naruto, let go of me." He said, an indefinite emotion lacing his words.

"Not until you stop demeaning yourself and admit you at least have _some_ good in you." Naruto said stubbornly.

Barely had the words slipped out from his mouth then his vision momentarily hosted a white blur. The next thing he knew, he was sprawled messily on the bed and a stinging pain had stained his cheek a sharp, angry red. The Hyuuga before him was on his feet, eyes smoldering with a deep, latent fury that glazed his eyes over with naked bitterness and resentment. Neji looked ready to commit bloody fratricide, wound tighter than a spring with great, pulsing wrath. Every word he spoke was with a deep, burning hatred aimed not at the blonde, but at a far deeper force manipulating his life.

"You have told me your miseries, but you have yet to know mine. I, who was born into a fate of rejection and denial. My whole life long I have been condemned to a kismet blacker than hell. Pity comes too late, Naruto. You who have gone through what you have should understand it more than anything else in the world."

Iridescent eyes widened in blatant recognition. Neji…he suddenly saw himself personified within the regal figure before him. The posture was the same, the clenched fists, the rigid line of the body, and the eyes…Neji's eyes were too eerily like his had been both in the past and present. No wonder he felt drawn to the Hyuuga. Naruto got slowly to his feet and padded with a maddening aura of wonder to where Neji stood coiled like a cobra ready to strike. Ever so slowly one pale hand reached up to stroke the line of Neji's jaw, a feathery touch with the pads of his fingers. The words slipped almost involuntarily past his lips.

"Neji…what have they done to you….what have you done to yourself?" He asked in a murmur of a whisper. The Hyuuga neither shied nor reveled in Naruto's cool, soft touch, eyes glittering with resentment and pain.

And slowly, ever so slowly, the walls around his heart crumbled and fell prey to the cannons of kindness and sympathy that laid siege to them under the command of one small, blonde boy.

His legs had somehow suddenly turned to fleshy lumps of mush and he collapsed haphazardly on the bed. What had taken place earlier suddenly reversed itself, and now it was Neji who wept with harsh, jerking sobs as Naruto gently cradled him, whispering condolences into his ear. The blonde patiently didn't inquire of the Hyuuga, content just to hold him, to offer him what reassurance he could. Neji inhaled a deep, shuddering breath, and suddenly the most amazing feeling spread through his chest as he felt the bearing, pressing weight that resided upon his soul suddenly dissipate. Naruto gently dried his eyes with his shirt, gently pushing Neji up into a sitting position. Their gazes locked, and suddenly the blonde's face split into his first real smile ever since meeting the Hyuuga.

The vision seemed to light up the room. The smile stripped away years from Naruto's face just like a whirlwind that stripped the flesh away from land. The blonde seemed to become a whole different person, a younger person, one free of cares. Neji gasped, eyes glittering in amazement and awe as he witnessed the spectacular change in the blonde. Naruto seemed to radiate moonbeams, gold, and silver; but no, to call it gold and silver would be an insult; it was more like fire and ice that the blonde emitted from his core. The whirlwind of emotions that swirled around the Hyuuga's entire being enraptured him like never before, both astonishingly frightening yet strangely pleasurable at the same time.

It was like his body moved entirely on its own. Neji felt his hands stretch out to run the length of Naruto's jaw, then move down to his chin. He grasped Naruto's chin between his thumb and forefinger like as if it were the most delicate, fragile thing he'd ever handled in his life and brought it slowly closer, closing what little distance remained between them. Slowly Naruto's lashes slipped closed and he tilted up his face, lips quivering with slight anticipation. And gently, ever so gently, Neji leaned forward and captured the blonde's lips with his own.

It wasn't a kiss for inducing pleasure. It was a kiss of pure understanding, pure sympathy, and suddenly whatever tension had crackled between the two made its way into their lips, sending the most gorgeous blue electricity waltzing up and down both Neji's and Naruto's spines. The Hyuuga parted his lips and lightly swept his tongue over Naruto's lips in a tender caress and the blonde accepted, granting Neji access to the sweet, sweet crevices of his mouth. Neji's supple tongue flicked once more over the aphrodisiac that served as Naruto's lips before running over the blonde's white, sharp canines. Naruto's mouth moved against his, applying a faint pressure as the blonde tilted up his lips to gain better access to the Hyuuga's.

Never before had Neji had kissed or been kissed like this before; naturally, throughout the course of his profession, his customers had claimed his mouth hungrily in their throes of lust, but it was without feeling, without passion, nothing but pure, tainted lust. But now…the way he was kissing Naruto…and the way Naruto was kissing him back….it truly felt as if Neji were experiencing his first kiss.

The Hyuuga broke the kiss even as Naruto did. A thin strand of saliva trailed between their lips and snapped, even as Naruto locked eyes with Neji once more. All feelings past guarded, they exposed their hearts, their souls, every single deep, dark secret of their beings to one another. Neji swept down and let his lips fall against Naruto's once more in another kiss, a deep, devouring, draining, passionate liplock that foretold of an end and a new, mysterious beginning. Naruto's fingers entangled themselves in black silk as he wrapped his arms around Neji's neck, pulling the Hyuuga down onto the bed. Together they lay, mouths interlocked in fervent embrace, sleek, supple bodies entwining upon the mattress. They lost track of the time, but time was no longer important, nothing was important now they had found each other, two wandering souls lost in the blackness of life.

Later

One pearl-white eye cracked open and graced the room with a stare clouded over with contentment. Neji closed the eye, slipping back into sleep, then thought the better of it and cracked open both. The contents of the room swam muzzily into focus as he shifted on the bed and made a half-hearted attempt to straighten out his hair. His gaze then alighted on Naruto's still form beside him, and his lips curved upward in a soft, tender smile has he witnessed the skyward curve of one hip and a nest of unruly golden-bronze hair perched atop the pillow. He momentarily noted that it was well past midnight, decided he didn't care, and settled for running his fingers through Naruto's hair in a somewhat lazy fashion.

Naruto stirred and awakened, mumbling incoherently as he flicked his fingers across his eyes, chasing fog and sleep away. He sat up and yawned heavily, cracking his jaw in the process, and rumpled up his hair, making it stick out at odd angles. Neji found it hard to keep a straight face.

"Neji?" Naruto drawled, the word slurred over with sleep as he turned to the Hyuuga.

"Yes?"

"Y'know…I have an idea…" Neji lifted a delicate eyebrow.

"And?" All traces of sleep gone now, Naruto's voice was softly urgent.

"I can get you out of here."

Neji looked at him like as if he were from an entirely different dimension.

"Pardon?"

Naruto repeated his sentence.

"That isn't possible. They check the rooms every morning, and someone will know if I'm gone. They'll most likely alert the Hyuuga clan that I'm missing, meaning I'll be hunted all my life if I try to escape." He said gravely. Naruto flashed a cheeky grin in his general direction.

"You forget. I've been hunted all my life by a whole village, much less by one family." He quipped lightly. Neji not-so-subtlety rolled his eyes.

"Ah, yes, how could I forget? We'd make quite a pair, two hunted outcasts…they'd defile their hands with our blood. They'd dishonor their weapons on our flesh." He said, sarcasm dripping from ever word. Naruto promptly dissolved into paroxysms of laughter.

"Nevertheless, I know how to avoid them. Don't assume that I haven't picked up a thing or two along the way. It's survival in its rawest form, Neji. I'm sure you're capable of it." He grinned. The Hyuuga looked wary.

"But…" Naruto leaned forwards, determination and sheer defiance scintillating in his eyes which had darkened to a stormy blackish-indigo.

"Listen. You want more than ever to break free of your fate, correct? Just wishing won't accomplish anything. You have to do something about it. Trust me, Neji. I can help you. Hyuuga clan or not, you have to face them and free yourself of them lest you spend the rest of your life locked in chains you yourself have created. If it is true you don't mean anything to them, they won't care whether or not you come or go. It's your life now, Neji. Don't let others control it." He said, a current of unyielding resolve tainting his voice. Neji hesitated, still unsure.

"I promise you'll be fine." Naruto said. A brief but glorious smile flashed across Neji's countenance.

"Very well. Work your magic, oh mystical waif. Free me from my chains, then." He said almost teasingly. Naruto's features contorted into a smile that made him seem more foxlike than ever.

"As you wish."

He turned and bounded lightly off of the bed, landing gracefully on the windowsill. Small fingers produced a paperclip and a few bobby pins, and Naruto skillfully worked the lock on the window, brow creased in concentration. A few seconds later, there was a faint click, and Naruto, a very self-satisfied smirk smeared like grease all over his face, delicately pushed open the window with one lithe finger. Briefly noting his surroundings, the blonde pulled Neji to the sill.

"You'll have to jump. There's no window in front of where we'll land, so you can rest assured." he said, then abruptly leapt out the window without a backward glance, landing with surprising grace on the grass three floors below. Neji gritted his teeth, then executed a rather halting leap, landing with a bit more force on the ground. Naruto displayed his widest grin yet.

"Congratulations. You have just jumped out of your very first window! I'm proud of you." Neji's answering smile was more of a twist of his mouth.

"Let's go." He muttered. Naruto smirked heavily.

"Afraid that the nasty policemen will be after your blood? Well, in your case, they'd be more interested in your ass…" Said comment earned him a sizzling glower that would've frozen any normal person's insides to ice. The blonde just snickered and surged ahead.

Together they ran, flying past buildings and houses alike, and as they ran, the sense of freedom surged in both chests, alighting their minds with the shimmering fire of impulse and desire.

The next morning there was a note on Hyuuga Hiashi's desk. The leader of the Hyuuga clan picked it up gently, scanning the words, eyes creasing in sudden shock.

Neji had escaped, leaving no trace behind him, sloughing off his family like he sloughed off his past.

Was this what he, Hyuuga Neji, had expected?

No.

But it was what he had dared to dream, encased in his shackles among his captors.

* * *

Like it? Hate it? Review, kudasai! I'm sorry for making Nejia whore (this means other people have gotten into his pants before Naruto (authoress wails and begs forgiveness) but I needed it for the plot...gomen ne...), but it ended up all hunky dory, so yeah...oh yeah...for anyone who finds this story too full of sap and mush, I apologize for that too...but I can't help myself...tis the fangirl in me...

Until next time (coughwhenIonceagainfallonmyassintheshowercough)!

Much love,

Silver-eyed Hyuuga


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